They say never kiss a Tory – but I truly never thought I’d miss a Tory.
But here we are.
Conservative influencer Emily Hewertson is back on Big Brother, and I’m surprisingly pleased.
On Friday night, three weeks after being evicted from Big Brother, Emily returned to the house alongside Farida Khalifa – and, while I certainly don’t like her, I firmly believe it’s the best thing that could have happened to the Big Brother house.
They say never kiss a Tory – but I truly never thought I’d miss a Tory.
But here we are.
Conservative influencer Emily Hewertson is back on Big Brother, and I’m surprisingly pleased.
On Friday night, three weeks after being evicted from Big Brother, Emily returned to the house alongside Farida Khalifa – and, while I certainly don’t like her, I firmly believe it’s the best thing that could have happened to the Big Brother house.
I’m the first to protest when reality television threatens to influence politics. I firmly believe Nigel Farage wouldn’t have won his seat in Clacton had he not been on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, and I’ll never understand why MAGA-loving Thomas Skinner was invited onto Strictly Come Dancing.
Big Brother, though, is an entirely different kettle of fish. It is – and always has been – the ultimate social experiment, one that should reflect the society its housemates are sealed away from.
Right now, according to YouGov, the right is growing in popularity. Meanwhile, the Big Brother house has felt like an echo chamber of lefties like me – with the exception of Farage’s pal Caroline Monk and the disgraced George Gilbert.
Gilbert was removed from the house – and rightly so – due to his offensive language; which included effectively questioning whether there was any justification for antisemitism (‘Is it a case of no smoke without fire, I wonder?’).
Gilbert should never have been anywhere near Big Brother – not because his views didn’t align with mine, but because they were baseless, dangerous, and ultimately breached Ofcom regulations about what can be shown on television.
But there has to be a bridge between the right-wing politics Gilbert represented – and the more left-wing voices in the house.
For now, I think Emily could be that bridge. I imagine – or hope – she might be a tad more reasonable in her communication than Gilbert, while remaining just as forthright.
I can say with some confidence… I’ll find Emily insufferable. On first impression alone, she’s childish, loud, and obnoxious – and that’s before we even get to her politics.
But for the first time on Big Brother, I’m finding myself increasingly frustrated with my echo chamber – the housemates I align with to a tee.
Zelah Glasson, Feyisola Akintoye, and Teja Dalphy speak my language. Almost everything they say feels spot on to me. If I were in the house, I know I’d get sucked into setting the world to rights every single day – and that would be a problem.
There’s an ego that comes with being on the left of politics. We believe our moral compass always points in the right direction, and that anyone who doesn’t share our ‘woke’ vision is wrong, terrible, and doesn’t have a voice worth listening to.
On Big Brother, that tunnel vision is starting to grate on me – even if, in life, I’m exactly the same.
Caroline has said things that make my skin crawl, like describing Farage as ‘quite a good bloke’ – but too often she is dismissed by the other housemates.
Teja, Zelah, and Feyisola won’t even let her help marshall the shopping list. The mere suggestion of it sent them into a tailspin, and their desperation to retain power was so transparent, it became undeniable
Their behaviour has become unhelpful. Big Brother is an experience where housemates should be wildly different from each other – and learn from those differences.
Right now, I don’t see much growth from anyone on either side of the political spectrum.
To be clear, I’m more likely to marry Ryan Reynolds than become friends with someone like Emily Hewertson. But I don’t have to like her to appreciate that she is very needed in the house.
I want to see housemates I wouldn’t meet – or want to meet – in the outside world, and listen to them from a distance. I might not agree with them, but I’m intrigued to hear their perspectives and see those views held to account.
That doesn’t have to mean endorsing offensive beliefs or language. But it does mean celebrating variety in all forms – including political.
I’m sure I’ll loathe much of what Emily says, and I certainly don’t know if she’ll make it to the final.
But if, even for just a few weeks, someone can shift the balance in the house, this will be a much more interesting Big Brother.
